The Last Kiss (Original vs. Remake)

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

Moviegoers tempted to venture into a theatre to take a look at the Tony Goldwyn/Paul Haggis remake of The Last Kiss ought to be sure they see the original Italian version first. Superior in every way, this 2001 gem was writer/director Gabriele Muccino's international breakout, capturing better than most films (from any country) that scary period when men approaching thirty start settling into permanent relationships. We see this via the lives of four friends (and their women) in various states of pre- and post-marital bliss (or something less), as well as the parents of one of the women. The movie is by turns funny, surprising, moving and incisive, as it looks at relationships from many angles. It sees the reasons to hold on to what we have and build on it, but it also acknowledges how difficult this is, given our innate sense of selfishness and hypocrisy.

As a big fan of Goldwyn's initial directorial effort A Walk on the Moon, I admit to having high hopes and experiencing huge disappointment at the Last Kiss remake, due I suspect in no small measure to the work of screenwriter Haggis, whose Crash and Million Dollar Baby I did not like. His heavy hand is all over the Last Kiss remake, as it telescopes the original, giving us a kind of comic book synopsis of characters and events. The biggest difference is in the general sensibility - American as opposed to Italian. This makes itself felt in everything from cinematography - rich, brilliant colors (red, golds, greens) in the original; wan, tepid hues (blues, off-whites and every shade of grey imaginable) in the remake - to character: the Italians are involved, emotional and full of life; the Americans are mostly network television-level. Zach Braff in particular exudes at most a mild charm and even milder angst. If nothing much is at risk, who cares?

In the original, Stefano Accorsi (His Secret Life) brings heavy duty heat, sex appeal and intelligence to the role, and against the simply gorgeous, fiery Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Facing Windows), in the American version poor Jacinda Barrett blanches. Haggis rather slavishly follows the original screenplay, but gives less time and specificity to almost everything, and so characterization, particularly among the three male friends, is one-note. He turns the high school girl who has the short affair with the lead into a college student, thus softening the edges (and leaving out one wonderfully funny moment) and once the major crisis occurs, he simply has his hero curl up into a cute little puppy dog begging for forgiveness. The original takes things farther and deeper, ending with a paean to marital joy followed by a wordless finale that is believable, ironic, funny and sad. Blythe Danner, Tom Wilkinson and Harold Ramis do what they can with the older set but they are no match for Stefania Sandrelli, Luigi Diberti and (yes!) Sergio Castellitto. See the remake if you're so inclined, but for goodness sake, treat yourself to the original The Last Kiss.

Winter Soldier and The Police Tapes

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): **** for both

Both Winter Soldier and The Police Tapes were made cinema verite style by film-making teams (Winter Solider by a 19-person collective, The Police Tapes by husband and wife team Alan and Susan Raymond). When viewed together the films provide a time capsule into the tail-end of a period of social upheaval in America, but also two unique voices about the destruction wrought by moral indifference and national ennui. In the case of Winter Soldier it's a "blank check" approach to a poorly strategized war against a misunderstood enemy; in Police Tapes it's the cycle of unrelenting brutality that flourishes when poverty goes ignored.

The Winter Soldier Investigations were a three day public hearing held in January 1971 at a Howard Johnson's in
Detroit wherein 109 honorably discharged veterans gave public testimony about the horrific crimes they witnessed and participated in during the Vietnam war. Their stories are startlingly grotesque and sadly similar, each arrived fresh faced and eager for action in the fight for freedom but over time were so worn down by lack of leadership and violent scorn from the locals they resorted to rape and torture to relieve boredom and frustration.

The Police Tapes was recorded with one of the first portable video recorders (that probably weighed more than 35mm film cameras do now) over the course of three months in 1976. The Raymonds interviewed rank and file police officers, bureau chiefs and people who had been brought into the station for help or under arrest. At the time, the 44th precinct of the South Bronx had become a national symbol of urban blight and street crime. In the film, in a few rather poetic monologues, the Aristotle-quoting borough chief outlines how ignoring the moral dilemma of poverty left gangs, drug abuse and mental illness to run rampant to the point where the Bronx had become a breeding ground for violence: "I am a very well paid commander in an army that occupies the ghetto, and that is a great tragedy. I don't know how useful one's life could be in that situation, and that's where my sense of defeat and frustration comes from."

Cinema verité employs little to no voice-over, b-roll or reenactments -- quite refreshing as we reach what is hopefully the high watermark of the "I-am-the-story" approach to documentary story-telling (paging Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, Ross McElwee and Alan Berliner). And in an age where pundits seem to have more credibility (or at least talk-time) than people whose lives are affected by the issues of the day, there's an almost luxurious feeling of credibility in such direct
communication.

Winter Soldier 's dvd extras include a roundtable discussion with the Winterfilm Collective, which included future Oscar-winning documentary director Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA and American Dream), editor Nancy Baker (Born into Brothels) and prolific television documentarian David Grubin. Twenty-five years later they regroup for the first time to discuss the process of working with such emotionally daunting material as first-time film-makers and their subsequent activism. Also included are three short films made by and about the veterans who spoke at the investigations. The Police Tapes DVD includes a 13 minute interview with the Raymonds (where we learn that the film served as the inspiration for the television series Hill Street Blues).

See also: The Fire Next Time, Doing Time, Fog of War, the "Up" Series and Night and Fog.

Trivia Contest! Russian Dolls and Sex Addict

To be eligible, send an email to contest@greencine.com, including your name, email address and, if you're a GreenCine member, your username in the email, and "Russian Dolls/Sex Addict" in the subject header. Winners will be selected at random from all entries. The deadline is Friday, September 29, at 12PM PST. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in future editions of the GreenCine Dispatch newsletter.

The Laughing Policeman

Reviewer: Alex Brinkman
Rating (out of 5): ***

If you live in San Francisco or are a fan of movies taking place here, then you're obligated to check out The Laughing Policeman. If you're a Walter Matthau fan (which means you like men with permanent grimaces; hint: the title is meant to be ironic) this is a must-see. Watching too many hard-boiled thriller-type movies after say, 1980, might cause you to lose your patience while watching Matthau doggedly chase down (this may be hyperbolizing his velocity) an unknown assailant who killed nine people on a bus (the venerable 14-Mission to be precise). The pace might be a little slow if break-neck speed is in your list of criteria for enjoying a good cop-flick, but this is easily forgiven based on the fact that reality is better reflected here (the bouquet of cynicism is delightful, especially given the period). You'll find none of the convenient plot-points that skip over the hum-drum of actually attempting to solve a case which doesn't involve fantastical and far-fetched revelations, all usually adding up to wondering why actual detective work seems so inefficient.

Bruce Dern's placement in the movie as a younger, less dedicated, yet well-adjusted detective works well as contrast to Matthau's hound-dog mug. And if you'd like to see a younger Louis Gossett (Iron Eagle fans Unite!), look no further. The reason San Francisco was chosen as the location (if the city's noirish Hammett history isn't enough) reveals itself quickly when you hear Dern's character actually use the term "fruiter." It's so politically incorrect you've got to love it, and then be embarrassed by it, and then remember why nostalgia's a double-edged sword, then love it again. The only question you might be asking yourself by the end of the movie is why Walter Matthau's character was given a wife and kids when a bottle of bourbon and a pack of Lucky Strikes would have done just fine.

Gloomy Sunday

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

Gloomy Sunday, an alternately dark and gorgeous German bouquet, provides as much romance, glamour and ambience as you’re likely to find from any movie in the past decade (maybe two). Taking place in Hungary pre-, during and post-WWII, it spins a fictional tale from the popular song of the day giving the film its title. The song - a marvelous combo of melody, schmaltz and angst - evidently sparked a spate of suicides internationally, and director/co-writer Rolf Schëbel jumps off from this bit of history to create a love-and-war tale of three men and the woman who changes their lives.

I'd always heard that the cafes and restaurants of pre-war Hungary were among the world's best - full of fine food, vivacity, artists and their art - which the film brings to glowing life. The characters, too, are much richer than your usual movie lovebirds. In fact, they negotiate a tricky but believable menage a trois, nearly unimaginable here in America (or in an American film, at least) but easily understandable in the Europe of this era.

Made in 1999, released in 2000 and an international award winner, Gloomy Sunday has certainly taken its time reaching DVD - perhaps because it proved a tiny sleeper as it played its quiet yet lengthy way across America. Here in Queens, NY, it had a successful run in our local Kew Gardens art cinema, and then made an unusual return visit due to popular demand. In Boston, it holds the record for the single longest-running film in the city's history (besting Cinema Paradiso in the process). It is supremely well-cast, with Joachim Krol (the killer in Soundless) as the restaurant owner, Italian actor Stefano Dionisi as the composer/pianist, Ben Becker (The Harmonists) as the Aryan fourth wheel, and Hungarian actress Erika Marozsan as everyone's best girl. One of the most beautiful women working in film today, Ms. Marozsan radiates in this role a combination of youth, beauty, sensuality and kindness. No wonder she knocks men off balance. (She's recently been cast - along with a dozen other terrific actors - in Robert Benton's adaptation of the splendid Charles Baxter novel The Feast of Love. If that movie turns out anywhere near as good as the novel, moviegoers are in for something special, and this actress may find herself with a career here in the States.)

As good as Gloomy Sunday is - rich in detail, intelligent and immensely enjoyable - it's not a great film because it is finally more interested in surface than depth, melodrama over drama, mystery over history. Yet I cannot think of another movie I would recommend to literally everyone I know and expect them to come back to me pleased - perhaps much more than that - to have seen it.

La Petit Jerusalem

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***

Ritual is primary to the sensual drama La Petite Jerusalem, as is fundamentalist thinking. This second film by writer/director Karin Albou (her first was made for French TV) begins with the Jewish ritual of tossing crumbs into the river as a symbolic way to part with one's sins. A family of Tunisian Jews have settled in France, living in the banlieue known by the movie’s title, and now that the father is dead, the son-in-law has taken over as head of the family. The movie centers around his wife, played by Elsa Zylberstein (Mina Tannenbaum, Farinelli), and her younger sister (Fanny Valette) and the slight plot revolves around the former's struggles to sexually please her straying husband, while the sister's drawn equally to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and the face and body of immigrant Muslim journalist.

When the Jewish family rejects the Muslim and his family rejects the Jew, what's a young girl to do? Not much, as it turns out, but enough, at least, to keep foreign film fans alert. Albou is as yet no great shakes as a writer (everything is set up in obvious fashion, and the dialog is just okay), but she possesses a nice visual sense. Her romantic/sex scenes are shot in extreme close-up, as the camera twists and turns as if it were "the other," and her "take" on family and school life seems lived-in and believable. If Valette's Laura appears a bit too quick to forsake philosophy, and her sister Mathilde turns out to be a quicker-than-normal learner of the sexual arts, we can forgive them - for the interesting religious rituals on display and the sadly typical, set-in-stone thinking of the fundamentalist families in this modern-day, halfway-to-Romeo and Juliet tale.

The Proposition

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ****

If Peter Weir (of the early variety) had channeled Sam Peckinpah he might have conspired to
produce something like The Proposition, John Hillcoat's Aussie meta-Western, a bleak and violent parable as mesmerizing as it is disturbing. In short, don't miss it. It's also exactly the kind of film you'd expect to have been written by musician Nick Cave - poetic, gloomy, gritty and as often brilliant as pretentious. Set in the harsh realm of the Australian outback of the late 19th century, an even more inhospitable land than the American west's desert terrain, where the parched land and cruel sun do damage to men's psyches.

Guy Pearce plays Charlie Burns, one-third of a trio of criminal brothers; the others being psychotic killer Arthur (Danny Huston, spellbinding) and terrified young 'un Mike who becomes the pawn in a lawman's (Ray Winstone) plans to capture Arthur, wanted for the brutal killing of a pregnant woman. Huston's Arthur Burns is a more primal variation on Henry Fonda's psychopathic killer in Once Upon a Time in the West - full of brutal behavior and puzzling poetic asides.

The film also sets itself apart with its location specific plotting and characterizations - from the aboriginal trackers (including a deputy played by veteran actor David Gulpilil) who work for the white settlers even as they are wary of revealing all the land's secrets, to the forbidding caves and canyons in which the mythic Burns hides out.

The narrative is bisected by the twin stories of the search for Arthur with that from the sheriff's perspective. As fantastic an actor as Winstone is (you might remember him as 'Gal' Dove in Sexy Beast), I found myself often impatient with the amount of time spent on his story and away from the story of brother tracking and finding brother. This is also a function of Huston's performance - any time the film is away from him it almost suffers in comparison. He's absolutely riveting while not overplaying it. And as the brother with more of a conscience, Pearce serves as a worthy counterpart, tormented by his own demons and confronted with the horrible proposition at the film's core - to kill one brother to save another.

In fact, all the performances here are all first-rate, even if not all the characters themselves are fully developed. (It wouldn't be a Western without delving into archetypes.) John Hurt makes a lasting impression in just a handful of scenes as the weather-beaten bounty hunter Jellon Lamb, chewing the scenery behind scuzzy makeup. Emily Watson represents the "civilization" that the rest of these brutes are too long separated from, as she tries to make a go of a life in the outback with her husband, the police Captain Stanley. And for a time she manages to keep the savage world outside at bay.

The late 19th century atmosphere is captured with keen authenticity - even the wardrobe, right down to the buttons, was all handmade - although the film has also been criticized in some corners for historical innacuracy. [Read Senses of Cinema for more.] Not being an expert on Australian history, I can't judge on this point but it is worth noting.

The Proposition is packed with unforgettable scenes, not the least of which is the terrifying Christmas Day dinner in which the Stanleys are interrupted by the beastly gang in a sequence shocking in its carnality and finality. While the film wavers in pacing and focus, it's never less than entrancing, a Western at once intensely modern and a throwback of which Peckinpah would be proud.

[One odd bit of trivia: fine Australian actor Noah Taylor (Shine, Flirting, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) appears in the film for literally only a couple of minutes, quickly meeting a grisly fate in the opening scene. Perhaps he was a victim of the editing room.]

Take Care of My Cat

Reviewer: Julie Newcomb
Rating (out of 5): ***½

In its earnest and slightly romanticized treatment of teens, Take Care of My Cat may at first remind you of a Korean Say Anything, but delves even further into the question of what happens just after high school graduation - do you escape your home town, or start settling down there, follow your dreams or earn a living, stay in touch with your high school friends or let them go? The film's core is the shifting relationship between Hae-joo, determined to succeed in the business world of Seoul, Tae-hee, already at work for the family business, and Ji-young, a talented outsider who seems just about to slip through the cracks. Buoyed by some beautifully saturated photography and something of a happy ending, the film nevertheless keeps an eye on the social and economic realities the girls face (it also boasts one of the more poignant Dance Dance Revolution scenes you're likely to see on film). Winner of several festival awards and anchored by a terrific performance by Du-na Bae as Tae-hee, Take Care of My Cat is an undiscovered gem.

Sonata For Viola

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): **½ (your rating may rise according to your knowledge of Russia and classical music)

Sonata For Viola presumes an immense amount of knowledge on the part of the viewer regarding - for starters - Dmitri Shostakovich and Russian history. Since this 75-minute documentary supposedly covers the life of the famous composer, I expected a certain level of "groundwork" information that would lead me into an understanding and appreciation of Shostakovich and the world in which he lived. While the movie will not deliver this to the uninitiated, that's not to say it isn't a somewhat enjoyable experience - particularly if you are familiar with the films of Alexander Sokurov (Father & Son, Russian Ark), who, via editing, shaped the work of the original filmmaker Semyon Aranovich into his own more elliptical, impressionistic view.

Early on, the narration and visuals seem a bit askew and the commentary comes and goes at odd times, leaving out more helpful identification than it includes. Isn't that Joseph Stalin in the middle of the photograph? Yes - but no one ever lets the cat out of the bag. (Evidently, this 25-year-old movie had to be kept from the hands of the KGB and was initially banned upon its completion. At times you'll feel like the filmmakers are deliberately obfuscating to avoid the censors.) Russians will no doubt relate to much of what they see (and what they don’t) in the manner of those who've had to live under dictatorial terror; the rest of us can guess and wonder. The composer's opera "The Nose" plays a large part here, but we get little background on it; images from old films and newsreels fuse in a succession that seems near-phantasmagoric; odd juxtapositions mingle with the more prosaic (at one point the narration mentions a phone call being made, and we see...yes, a phone). Of course, the phone may conjure subdued terror to Russians; we're just beginning to understand a society in which the populace - finances to phone calls - is being monitored by its government.

Much of this is set to Shostakovich's music, which makes it more enjoyable, and we do learn of the connection he shared and fondness he felt for other musicians such as Ivan Sollertinsky - though nothing of his denunciations by the Communist Party. Toward the end comes a lovely section that combines visuals and music with the words of Anton Chekov. All in all, worth a watch for classic music buffs and those interested in Russian history and culture.

Unknown White Male

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): **½

A British man wakes up one morning on a subway in Brooklyn with a headache and no memory of who he is. His backpack contains a few odds and ends but no identification. He turns himself into the police who
send him to a psychiatric ward where he's told he can't leave until someone recognizes him and picks him up. Eventually a woman he dated briefly (who doesn't seem to care much for him) comes to collect him. He arrives to his enormous Manhattan loft where he slowly excavates hundreds of hours of videotapes that make up his forgotten life. He learns his name is Doug Bruce. He's rich, well-traveled and after visiting a procession of neurologists, endocrinologists and psychologists he learns no one can conclusively state where his memory has gone.

Rupert Murray's occasionally fascinating but uneven documentary Unknown White Male asks the questions, What does memory loss feel like and how can a person reconstruct their life based on moments filtered through a camera? It's a noble ambition but these ideas seem fairly out of the reach of a director who asks three different times in voiceover whether or not he and his former friend - Douglas Bruce, the subject of the film - will still like each other.

Early on, the film posits that many people think the entire memory loss is a scam. The cracks in the Bruce family's British austerity are too narrow to tell either way and the director, who has little reason to doubt his friend, opts to focus on connecting the viewer with Doug's constant sense of frustration, exhilaration and confusion.

The most memorable scenes of Unknown White Male lie in Bruce's (re)discoveries: a frantic phone call to his sister to tell her about this thing called "chocolate mousse cake," falling in love with
rock 'n' roll, diving into the ocean and visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These moments are captured beautifully with interlaced time-lapse, found footage and testimonials from friends.

Ultimately the film does succeed in demonstrating how someone cocooned in wealth reintegrates himself into our crazy, modern world whilst nuzzling every morsel, and as a study in just how far one has to go to slough off their less attractive friends, snag a model girlfriend and shake up the New York art scene. The DVD extras address many of the medical and logistical questions that arise during the film. There's an interview with Bruce's neurologist, extended interviews with his friends and family, a making of featurette and a brief interview with Bruce about the immediate impact the documentary has brought to his life.

See also: Tarnation, Sound & Fury, Shock Corridor, Memento, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

What do you think? Comment below after you watch the DVD.

Soldier of Orange

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): **** ½

With Paul Verhoeven's new film, Black Book, also centered around the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and his first film shot in his native country in decades [read David D'Arcy's review of the film which premiered in Toronto], it seemed a good time to revisit Soldier of Orange.

Epic in length and scope, but also a character-driven piece, Verhoeven's masterfully entertaining WWII film Soldier of Orange is the most polished of his early Dutch films (though the more subversive The 4th Man is perhaps his sharpest). It makes it all the more apparent how far he eventually fell in his more recent Hollywood forays (B-movie masterpiece RoboCop notwithstanding). Soldier also catapulted Rutger Hauer to stardom, charismatically playing real life heroic (and, eventually, flying) Dutchman Eric Lanshof, a bit of an anti-hero who was initially apolitical during WWII but eventually found himself figthting in the resistance after Holland was overtaken by the Germans. The recognizable, always solid Jeroen Krabbe plays Lanshof's longtime friend who gets caught up along with him in trying to save the country they love, long after their Queen (whom they eventually meet) has fled to England.

With a rousing score by Rogier Van Otterloo, the film races through an array of breathtaking events over several years as Verhoeven aptly mixes the surreally humorous and touching with the disturbing and suspense scenes that would make Hitchcock proud. While Soldier is a bit overlong, with a protagonist far more interesting than Saving Private Ryan's Captain Miller, the film ranks up there with the great war movies of all time.

Verhoeven also provides enjoyable running commentary on the DVD which alternates between illuminating and rather obvious. The quality of DVD picture could be better (some color fading and occasional
lack of sharpness) but it's more than adequate and the film's sweeping scope remains as clear as ever.

Kicking and Screaming

Reviewer: Alex Brinkman
Rating (out of 5): ****

If there were to be established a genre of movies involving the angst-mongering nature of post-college malaise (ignoramus that I am, there may well be), Kicking And Screaming would easily shoot to the top of the list, alongside The Graduate and possibly Garden State. The old Lit. 101 term for this type of story is a Bildungsroman, or, for the unpretentious non-Germanophile, a maturation story. Noah Baumbach�s (The Squid and the Whale) debut effort (as a writer and director) perfectly captures the "Now what?" feeling of life after college, both through his sharp writing and a very solid ensemble cast. Criterion's new DVD for the film is a welcome, quirky addition to their library.

The film opens on a graduation party as Grover (Josh Hamilton) loses his girlfriend Jane (a cute/quirky Olivia D�Abo), the requisite appearance of Eric Stoltz, who plays Chet the eternal student/oracle, Otis (Carlos Jacott) a hapless engineering doofus under the heavy influence of his friend Max (Whit Stillman favorite Chris Eigeman), Skippy (Jason Wiles) and his girlfriend Miami (Parker Posey, of course - it is an independent). While there are, as with any ensemble film, a few tangential subplots, the main thrust is Grover�s loss of Jane to Prague and his inability to make any decisions. Happily, he is joined in this Sartresque hell by his college friends, who are all suffering at the hands of similar existential dilemmas. Flashbacks to a budding Grover-Jane romance pepper the chronology of the film as it marches through another academic year with the cast employing mostly non-academic pursuits, or no pursuits at all. Highlights include Stoltz extolling paternal wisdom, Eigeman laying his perfectly timed and erudite smart-assitude down nice and thick, and Jacott weakly avoiding confrontation - and grad school. While at times the dialogue feels like a list of funny things people once actually said and which Baumbach decided to write down, one is still grateful he had a pen in hand. First efforts sometimes suffer from autobiographical transparency, and while there is a self-conscious riff running through the movie, one can relate despite this, or possibly because of it. Intelligence, wit, humor and romance, all in one very well-executed package.

The Criterion disc includes a new video interview with writer-director Baumbach, as well as conversations featuring Baumbach and cast members Eigeman, Hamilton and Jacott, rare deleted scenes, and a fun short film from 2000, Conrad and Butler Take a Vacation, directed by Baumbach and starring Kicking and Screaming cast members Jacott and John Lehr.

For 9/11: A list.

As we reach the (can it be five years already) fifth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, films can be useful for those seeking meaning, if not answers, and reflection. A host of films, both documentary and feature, have since been released - and will likely continue. Even the imperfect ones add good fodder for discussion; here are a good number of them:

• 9/11 ***½
• Fahrenheit 911 *** (and we should mention the anti-Michael Moore film Fahren-HYPE 911 - though they're both biased in their way, and Moore deserves some skewering, the latter is also pretty sloppily made and not particularly convincing)
• 11'09"01: September 11 ****
• Afghan Stories ***½
• Aftermath: Unanswered Questions from 9/11 ***
• Brothers...On Holy Ground ***
• Hijacking Catastrophe ***
• Power & Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times ***½
• 7 Days in September ***
• United 93 ****
• WTC View ***
• WTC: The First 24 Hours **½
• The Great New Wonderful **½

Posted by cphillips at 2:28 PM

Elevator to the Gallows

Reviewer: Marc Barrite
Rating (out of 5): ****

In his first feature, French director Louis Malle struck cinematic gold with this film noir, an adaptation of a novel by Noel Calef. There are many faces appearing here who would become fixtures in French cinema but it's the lovely Jeanne Moreau who leaves the most indellible impression; she gives a stand-out performance as the bourgeois Florence Carala helplessly wandering the streets of Paris at night in search of her lover. Moreau's travels are masterfully captured by cinematographer Henri Decae, who employs many of the groundbreaking, budget-conscious techniques that would be used more overtly in the subsequent French new wave movement, including the sole use of available light, which in this film results in a beautiful array of natural shadows cast about in each scene.

Elevator's success and timelessness was further sealed by having jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis perform the unforgettable soundtrack. The improvised score is a shining example of the cool and seductive sound Davis purveyed during the rise of his career. The spare instrumentation and smoky atmosphere of the recordings are hypnotic, complementing the film perfectly.

Though nearing its 50th birthday, Elevator holds up with the best of its contemporaries. The pacing and plot complexities will keep today's less-than-patient viewer attentive, there's enough isolation and paranoia to satiate even the most hardened Hitchcock and noir fans, and the screenplay (by Malle and Roger Nimier) is at once sharp, romantic and political. The Criterion bonus disc offers interviews with Malle and Moreau from 1975 and 2005 respectively, rare footage of Miles Davis performing the soundtrack, and Malle's rarely seen film school short, Crazeologie, to boot.